SHEPHERDING AND TEACHING—THE OBLIGATION OF THE VITAL GROUPS (4)
We need to contact and take care of others, sinners and believers, as the apostle Paul, the top apostle, did in contacting people and taking care of people’s need (2 Cor. 1:23—2:14). In 2 Corinthians 11:28-29 Paul says, “Apart from the things which have not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the anxious concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” This unveils the care of a proper shepherd.
Our attitude may be that everyone is weak but we are not weak. We may have the feeling that we are strong ones. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul says, “To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak.” This means that we should come down to the weak one’s level. To a sick person we come down to the level of a sick person. This is the way to shepherd people by visiting them. Paul also says, “Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” This is to burn in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling of all the fallen ones. This shows the pattern of Paul as a good shepherd, taking care of God’s flock.
Acts 20 says that while Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. He told them that they should shepherd God’s flock, which God purchased with His own blood (v. 28). The shepherding of God’s flock was on Paul’s heart. Many think that Paul was a great apostle doing a great work as a great career. But Paul considered what he did as shepherding the flock of God. We have to be revolutionized in our logic and consideration. We should not think that we are going to do a great work for Christ like certain spiritual giants. These so-called giants actually did not accomplish much for God’s interest. Instead, they only made a name for themselves with little result for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The apostle Paul taught in his personal visits to the churches (1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b)… Paul also wrote fourteen Epistles to the churches and individuals concerning God’s eternal economy with Christ as its centrality and universality and the Body of Christ as its central line to consummate the New Jerusalem. What Paul taught was the same as what the Lord Jesus taught. Many teachings today are in the realm of ethics. They are not up to the standard of what Christ and Paul taught. Both Christ and Paul taught the contents of God’s eternal economy. In our vital groups we have to learn to teach these things. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 7, pp. 115-116)
The church in Zamboanga 